Opposition criticises false reports on works of MCC

Members challenge report that Rs 106-lakh work is complete

The opposition members of the Council of Mangaluru City Corporation objected to the false report on completion of works taken up under SFC special grants.

The MCC official had said that the works had been completed and third party inspection on the quality of works had also been submitted to the Corporation. In a monthly meeting chaired by Mayor Harinath, Chief whip Shashidhar Hegde, while reading out the agenda, said that of the 58 works under SFC special grants, 19 works worth Rs 106 lakh have been completed.

Water and drain

Objecting to the report, BJP corporator Harish said that out of 19 works, the work on developing a road beside Dambel water body at Rs 8 lakh and work on drains bear Nagabrahma Sanniddi at Rs 2 lakh had not been taken up. Yet, the report clearly mentions that the works have been completed.

Reacting to it, Executive Engineer Ganeshan R said that Nirmithi Kendra, which was entrusted with the work, had completed all the 19 works and the third party inspection had also been carried out. The Opposition leaders took Mayor Harinath to task on how a third party inspection could be carried out when the works were not taken up and doubted the veracity of the report.

Opposition leader in the Council Roopa D Bangera said that the previous commissioner had said in her complaint to the state government that out of 58 works proposed under the SFC special grants, 38 works had been taken up but she had doubted its quality. In her report, she had mentioned that third party inspection has not been carried out for the said works and had impressed on the state government to take up a probe into the works.

When Harinath tried to convince the opposition leaders that, based on the complaint by the previous commissioner, the state government had conducted a probe into the works through the deputy commissioner, who in turn has submitted the report to the government. When the opposition demanded to postpone the approval of agenda, he said, “Barring three pending works, let us give approval for the works.”

However, the opposition leaders demanded a probe into the works and urged the mayor to document their objections to the approval of agenda. When Corporator Sudheer Shetty said that soil dumped on top of the pipelines at Adyar and Kannur, MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said that the MCC has already taken measures to remove the soil.

Unlikely to get grant

MLA J R Lobo said that the Mangaluru City Corporation is unlikely to receive fourth tranche of Rs 100 crore under the Nagarothana grants this year. “As Mangaluru City’s selection is under the Smart City project of the union government, the state government has to pool in its share of Rs 1,200 crore for the six cities from Karnataka selected under the project. It may, therefore, not release Nagarothana grants to such civic bodies. The allocation under Nagarothana will cast additional financial burden on the state government,” explained the legislator.

Hinting that the MCC will not get the fourth tranche of grants, the MLA said that the legislators and district in-charge minister have already given a representation to the chief minister urging him to release grant under Nagarothana scheme.